Pressure monitoring systems are used in many applications. For example, a tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) often measures tire pressure for a vehicle and notifies a vehicle's operator if the measured tire pressure falls outside of an ideal tire pressure range. Thus, a TPMS improves safety for the vehicle operator and for surrounding vehicle operators.
A TPMS for a vehicle often includes one tire pressure monitoring sensor per wheel, plus an electronic control unit (ECU). FIG. 1 shows an example of a conventional tire pressure monitoring sensor 100, The sensor 100 includes a pressure sensor 102, an analog-to-digital-converter (ADC) 104, and a microcontroller 106. During operation, the pressure sensor 102 provides an analog signal 108, and the ADC 104 converts the analog signal 108 to a digital signal 110. The microcontroller 106 puts the digital signal into a formal suitable for transmission to the ECU. The ECU then evaluates the formatted digital signal to determine whether the measured pressure falls within an acceptable tire pressure range, and can alert the driver if the pressure falls outside this acceptable range.
Although conventional pressure monitoring systems are adequate in many respects, they suffer from a shortcoming in that they are unable to flexibly monitor different pressure ranges. For example, although one sensor is useful in measuring pressures for tires of passenger vehicles, which can have normal tire pressures in the range of about 100 kPa-450 kPa; the same sensor is unable to effectively measure pressures for tires of commercial vehicles, which can have normal tire pressures in the range of bout 100 kPa-850 kPa. Consequently, the present disclosure provided improved methods and systems for monitoring pressure.